Chapter 29
New Character
"I want to go there too. To an era of peace and harmony."
"But if I can break this chain of hatred... I will accept my fate."
The Lord of Death who embraced all the world's sins and hatred to break the chain of hatred
[Demon King Perlereino] Now Available!
As Act 2's episodes effectively conclude, a new limited character has appeared.
None other than Demon King Reino, who players have been raising and traveling with throughout the episodes.
While Act 2's story ended somewhat awkwardly due to sudden changes midway through, players experienced the entire journey together.
-Reino-chan! We're together now!
-T_T So sad, if we get this character does our Reino come back to life?
-My Lady Demon King... rest in peace now
-*sniff*
As a result, players celebrated the release of the new character.
-Gonna give her lots of hugs right in the lobby
-We'll show Reino the peaceful world
-Come here!
Most players wanted to obtain the character due to her compelling narrative and characterization shown in the story.
-A Demon King should be stronger than Knights or Saints, right?
-A Demon King with the power to destroy an entire continent! Obviously gonna be a performance character!
However, quite a few players had certain demands - the inevitable fate of characters in gacha games.
That fate was the Meta.
-Hey I'm working on Saint Ostinato, should I just drop it and save up for Demon King?
└ No no, get the Saint first then save mining resources for Demon King
└She's a Demon King who destroyed half the continent, definitely gonna be strong
└Welcome fellow gay, I did Saint Ostinato too, gotta rush mining for Demon King resources
-Any F2P players who got both Knight and Saint?
└Yeah quite a few because of Ostinato
└Starting without both Knight and Saint is an illegal takeoff
-When's Knight rerun, I'm a newbie who started with just Saint and I'm crying
└Just wait, with Demon King you won't need Knight anymore
└Why not use both together, what's this about not needing them newbie.
As limited characters increased to three, the proportion of players without all characters grew.
Players who missed out on [Knight Ren] or [Saint Kate] due to bad luck with starting or mining resources.
Players who started late and never had a chance to obtain them.
Players who simply didn't like one of the two limited characters and chose not to pull.
Each had their own reasons for not having all characters.
Characters I don't have. But characters that person has.
Players would disparage characters they couldn't obtain as "sour grapes" like the fox in the fable, comforting themselves.
To survive in the harsh community, they had to prove the superiority of the characters they did have
And naturally, the metric for determining character superiority became their Meta.
-Look at [Knight Ren]'s damage output. It's on a different level from regular characters. Just look at the [Assassin of the Abyss] speedruns.
-But it's just single target damage?
-Single target is fine, when do you need to farm mobs? Besides [Knight Ren] has attack speed and movement speed buffs on kill passive so handles mobs well too
Superior damage output or
-Obviously [Saint Kate] is the best character. Healers are a noble profession. Try surviving against enemies without a healer
-But healers can't do anything alone right? Can't even do 'damage'
-This one hasn't tasted the Saint's giant club yet
Unique positioning through support abilities
Even without competitive content, players tried to justify their character pools and spending by creating tier lists.
Conveniently, the newly added weekly boss [Assassin of the Abyss] provided a stage to evaluate Meta relevance with its moderately difficult and tricky patterns, plus appropriate HP.
And amidst all this, a new character appears with powerful story impact.
As players waited for the pickup banner to start, the community descended into chaos.
*
"How Meta should Demon King Perlereino be?"
I pondered deeply before releasing the Demon King character.
Story-wise, Reino possesses the power of the Lord of Death.
You could say "That woman! Has the power to destroy the world!"
It doesn't make sense to release such a mighty character as weak.
However, making her strong according to the setting creates new problems.
It would threaten the position of existing characters.
Starting with [Knight Ren], the very first pickup character who is a damage dealer.
It's not an issue if regular 4-5 star characters are weaker than new ones. But what if the character I pulled gets overshadowed by a new one so soon?
For example, let's say there's a character called [Ricardo].
This character deals damage normally and does 10 damage in 1 time unit.
Then a new character called [King of the Locker Room] is released.
This character deals damage the same way but does 20 damage in 1 time unit.
[The joy of following old-timers. Game suddenly got fun]
Players would immediately riot.
What happens to the Ricardo I pulled then?
Who would pull new characters after seeing these locker suckers running wild.
But conversely, if [King of the Locker Room] does 10 damage in 1 time unit, they won't pull because it's bland.
As operators, we need to make players feel novelty or appeal to get them to pull new characters.
And the most effective method is generational power creep that makes previous characters obsolete.
But as in the first example, this leads to strong player backlash and shortens the game's lifespan.
There is a way to achieve this generational power creep while minimizing player backlash.
Instead of [King of the Locker Room] simply doing 20 damage in 1 time unit, make them consume half HP to enter [Suck♂tion] state as a cost for doing 20 damage in 1 time unit.
The new character deals more damage at the cost of risk and tradeoffs, but to players it only appears as a better character.
However, compared to existing characters, they can't completely replace them due to having more difficult mechanics, more complex controls, or risk factors.
Many game companies have released new characters in similar ways - sidegrades or upgrades that don't appear as such.
As someone who has seen the precedents of many Earth game companies, I decided to copy our seniors' know-how.
"[Knight Ren] is a single target damage dealer."
Then the next damage dealer could be AoE.
Perfect for a character who uses lava.
*
A free server separated for the Demon God
It's the release of her beloved master's character.
"I can do this, right?"
The Demon God trembled while waiting for the pickup start time.
"I'll definitely get her."
Demon King Reino covered her with a blanket.
Though Reino's warm hands melted the Demon God's frozen ones, the trembling didn't stop.
"There you go again. What are you trying to pull?"
"That's..."
The Demon God stammered, unable to continue properly.
After all, she couldn't say she was nervous about failing to get her master's character.
Of course, Reino who knew the Demon God's current state from him just giggled internally.
"It's here!"
When the pickup time arrived, the Demon God opened the gacha window and rushed in.
The [Archive] book appearing through dimensions
As it opened, rainbow light overflowed.
"Please! Come to me master!"
And the character that popped out was
"I ask. Are you my master."
A bald muscular man.
"..."
The Demon God screamed at that result screen.
The Demon God who couldn't accept reality for a while.
"Nooooooooooo!"
When reality wouldn't change no matter how long she waited, she despaired.
"Why! Why isn't it Reinoaaaa!"
Even the real Reino was dumbfounded by that pitiful scream.
"Lady Demon God."
"...What."
sniff
The Demon God who was secretly wiping tears turned around.
"It says here... you can get more [Sage Stone] resources if you pay enough?"
"...What?"
The Demon God pressed the ( ) button next to the Sage Stone with a blank expression.
A shop popped up for replenishing [Sage Stone] in exchange for real money.
The Demon God's expression quickly brightened.
"Wait for me Reino! I'll definitely save you!"
The Demon God flew off to order the current Demon King to offer some sacrifices.
Only the real Reino remained alone, letting out an empty laugh.
"...Real idiot."
However, the true trial had not yet arrived.
-Guys isn't this Demon King trash? Damage is super weak?
-It's AoE attacks though
-Who cares about AoE when it takes longer to kill [Assassin of the Abyss] than regular characters
-This is a frog
-[Knight Ren] is better than [Demon King]